Skulds Asistant
by Eucep
Summary: A word of advice, never give away your wish to a fledgeling goddess. (Not yet finished)
1. Meeting Skuld

Legal Disclaimer: Oh My Goddess and involved characters are owned by Kosuke Fujishima. This story is fanfic and thus no claim of ownership.  
  
Playstation is owned by Sony.  
  
MegamanX6, Felicia and Zangief are owned by Capcom and Sony.  
  
Yadda yadda yadda.  
  
Skulds Assistant  
  
Written by Marc "Eucep" Tuijtelaers  
  
Started 30th of August 2001  
  
Last update 23th of May 2004  
  
A few days ago I became very, VERY happy as I finally got the first OMG! DVD. It re-boosted my creative mind and I got to this story, which is in part based on the idea formed in Oh My Brother (with Christopher Angel) and Oh My God (by Brett Handy). I used some of their idea's behind the setting. This time tough it's a bit of a switch around.  
  
The rest of the setting uses what I know about what happened after the UDP was destroyed. Including the appearance of Welsper, Hilde and Lind.  
  
Having now read the manga from chapter 1 till 176 I am way more up to date. It has led me to change some of the setting I used to be more in place with the events that have happened  
  
The story is written in a letter mode, the main character writes his experiences for his friends who he hasn't seen in a long time.  
  
From: DebuggerMarcasgard.  
  
To: SnorroHotmail.com  
  
Dear crew of the Cyb, the Labyrinth and the Theeshuis and all my other palls.  
  
By this letter I'll try to explain why I haven't been around for a year and didn't let anyone, including my parents, know what was going on. No I'm not dead and no I'm not (really) in trouble.  
  
Everything in this mail is true, but to tell in advance, you cannot forward this mail or show it to anyone else as a: they wouldn't believe it, b: the mail won't let itself be forwarded/copied/printed/shown to anyone else.  
  
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Well, it starts a day before I 'vanished'. On that day occurred the most important turning point in my life.  
  
As usual I was minding my own business at home. I was in the middle of writing a 'excuse me' letter to the people of my last job for quitting as I had found a possibility for a better one, as far as it went I already was hired by my new employee. Soon I would be a military officer, well a non-commissioned officer at the Royal Netherlands Air Force.  
  
Mom had just brought up a cup of tea while I worked on the last details of the letter. After a little chitchat she left to start dinner and left me with the just finished letter and a nice cup of Cinnamon-Darjeeling tea. I had just received an e-mail from a DebuggerSkuldasgard. with the subject 'Wish and stuff.' and I opened it, curious where it came from. It simply stated, "I'll be over in a flash." I really was in that, oh yeah mood then. That was just a bit to weird a comment for me. Yet alas, things got proven to be weirder then just what I assumed to be nonsense writing.  
  
Suddenly the tea started to boil wildly and a column of light erupted from the cup. The most amazing sight I saw was when a 4" girl with black hair jumped out of the 'portal' and landed on the bed of my room. Then poof she turned into a 14 year old girl with a weird pink and red outfit with reminded me of a lab coat. Her long black hair was accented by a big yellow ribbon. On her back she seemed to carry along a 4 foot long croquet hammer. She smiled at me, one of the nicest smiles I know.  
  
"Hi, I'm Skuld, I'm a Goddess and I'm here to grant you a wish." She apparently was in a bit of nervous mode, blabbing out as much information as possible in the shortest time possible. I later learned that this was because this was the first time she had to grant a wish.  
  
"Uh, huh." Still had my touch for very short and meaningful answers. I was in a state of shock to say the least.  
  
"Ello, anybody home in there?" She quickly stood in front of me waving her hand before my eyes.  
  
"Ehrm, did you just say goddess, the goddess Skuld." Now my brain started working again and it especially went back to my reading a book about Norse mythology. "As in the Norn Skuld?"  
  
She nodded. "Yep." She frowned a bit at me, apparently checking out how I appeared at that moment, which wasn't really that good at all. Especially my hair was a mess and I was in only a t-shirt, socks and boxers. I realized this, grabbed my pants and ran out of the room into the bathroom and cleaned myself up in less than two minutes.  
  
Talk about bad first impressions, even for me an all-time low.  
  
When I came back in she was busy at my pc, checking out the letter I just wrote and on the other monitor she was checking out the Internet page I had made as an introduction handiwork for my new employer, quite spiffy if you ask me.  
  
"Sorry for the mess that I call a room." She looked up at me curious.  
  
"What's so bad about a few components on the floor?" She pointed at all the computer parts that were scattered about. I swore she was actually enjoying such a mess.  
  
"So what's this about a wish and you granting me it. Like don't you have to run around with Verdandi and Urd to predict fate for every newborn?" She was shutting down my computer as I said this.  
  
"Belldandy, not Verdandi anymore, she likes her new name better. And Yggdrassil can take care of mortal fate well enough. And yes, you get one wish, any wish you want. Even tough it has to be approved by Kami-Sama."  
  
"Ehrm, who is Kami-Sama, or do you perhaps mean Odin?"  
  
She nodded. "One entity, many names."  
  
"Wow, a wish, gulp. Eh, gimme some time to think." I sat down on my bed and did some long thinking. After about ten minutes Skuld obviously was starting to get bored. She looked young, acted young, and acted a lot like my little niece Tamara so I turned on the tube and the Playstation.  
  
"Care for a game while I think." I held up MegamanX6 and Pocket Fighters.  
  
She grabbed Pocket Fighters and inserted the disk. "Thank you." She grabbed the controller and handed me the other one.  
  
After a few bouts it became apparent that even tough I was more experienced with the game, she had the advantage with divine senses.  
  
"So why are you from up there granting wishes?"  
  
She was thoroughly whacking me up using Felicia, while I used Zangief. "Because Yggdrassil is taking care of just about all the tasks we had we got some new tasks. Like granting wishes to worthy mortals."  
  
"Worthy mortals, what makes me 'worthy'?" I wondered. "It's not like I truly did anything to deserve such a thing as far as I know."  
  
"As far as I know you simply are worthy, even tough Urd said that you suffer from the K1-syndrome."  
  
I decided to ignore the last remark, not really understanding what it meant. "So you and your sisters are all granting wishes?"  
  
"No, it's actually Belldandy's task, but she is occupied with another task now, so now I or Urd get the job when other deities aren't available. Bell was really good at the task, but I'm completely novice at this and Urd just screws up everything..." And Skuld continued with a short tirade about her sisters good and bad sides, near to none of the latter about her sister Belldandy. "... So this morning I got a call from Kami-sama that I was to grant a wish.  
  
"Sounds cool." I finally snagged her into a clothesine attack, but in mid pummel she managed to worm herself out of the attack. "What kind of wishes do you gods and goddesses get? I hope none involved secret ultimate world-domination."  
  
"Nope, the ultimate force won't allow such things, but we have some pretty strange ones regularly. Most of them tough wish for riches or chances for big riches..." She went on with several of the weirder and funnier wishes and the way the ultimate force, the force that enforces wishes and the power of the gods, worked until she ended up with one of the more recent ones, one granted by her sister Belldandy. "... and then this Baka Keicchi wished for a girl like her to stay with him forever."  
  
That one got to me. "So he managed to get involved with one of the probably prettiest girls in existence and get a happy immortality at the same time. Lucky bastard. But is he really so bad, I don't think he can be if he got a wish in the first place."  
  
Her eyes widened. "I-Im-Immortality?" The wish now fully rang in her head and she realized the truth. Then the cries came out a lot, she cried a very long time. All the time muttering "It's not fair, it's not fair." I laid my arm around her to comfort her. It helped a bit, she cried a bit less, but she looked really miserably. Luckily that even tough I'm fairly big I never appear threathingly, otherwise I probably would have been ashed right that moment.  
  
I felt rather awkward, touching a goddess that intimate, tough it was more like when I had to comfort my lil niece when she was being bullied. "Ahw, come on Skuld, if your sister is happy with him, doesn't she deserve that happiness. Aren't you happy when she is happy too. If you were nice to him you would probably gain a friend for life you know and with you that is a very long time. With a bit of luck in a few years he cannot stay on earth anymore as he probably doesn't age to insure happiness with Belldandy, so he'll have to move with Belldandy to your home. At least I presume that the ultimate force works both ways."  
  
She looked up at me with watery eyes. "Do you really think so?" I nodded. "That we can go home?"  
  
It took a bit and I smiled. "Yup."  
  
Holding her for a while I allowed her to calm down, she really needed it, but from her face I could tell she suddenly had a lot to think about. At least this way I knew that a goddess like Skuld isn't omniscient. (Know everything divine power.)  
  
A few minutes later I came back to the issue at hand. "I really cannot come up with a wish. I could go for riches, but I rather work for my happiness. Same goes for my looks and getting a perfect girlfriend and so. Secret powers allure me, but they'll distance me from my friends and family. So all in all, there really isn't anything I could come up with other than this." I raised my voice.   
  
"I wish for you to get my wish instead, the only wish I will not allow is one that would cancel Keicchi's and Belldandy's one." I just smiled at her. She had a look of utter confusion on her face.  
  
I had noted before that she had a triangle symbol on the front of her head, but now it started to glow in a light blue and a beam of light shot from it up into the air. It seemed to leave a hole in the roof, but it closed as the beam stopped. She sat on the floor now and looked at me. "Your wish has been approved." This wish probably ranked eleven out of ten on the weirdness scale for her.  
  
"You have a long time ahead of you so you have more use for a wish than I do."  
  
"..."  
  
"Well, it's been my pleasure to meet you. Hmm, maybe you care for dinner, nah, mom wouldn't believe who you are..." Not really wishing to look directly into the eyes of the goddess I looked at some stuffed toys I still had on my room from my baby time. They were moving around on their own. "Errr. Skuld, did you do that?" I pointed at the stuffed rabbit walking around in front of me on the ground.  
  
She snapped out of her own shock and saw what was happening. "No, it's a bug, caused by your highly unusual wish." Something that really made me question what she was talking about.  
  
Her eyes went from playful to hunting mode, well not physical, but I noted a difference. She grabbed the hammer from her back. "When I find it I'll whak it good. Ah, there it is."   
  
She charged at a being that looked like a cross of a rabbit and a spider. Cute and revolting at the same time. It scampered away, but Skuld gave chase. Down the chairs through the hallway and the kitchen into the garden. Of course alerting my parents of her presence, not much tough as they too were bugged, experiencing several flowers who were walking around due to the bug. I too went down to see her hunting that thing, but it dodged every blow of her. I ran over to the shed and took out the wooden sledgehammer my dad used for hammering down poles into the ground to make fences. At 40 pounds it is a lot heavier than Skulds and thus slower, but it has the same length and I had the advantage of surprise. My reasoning proved true as Skuld was chasing the bug it didn't pay attention to me when I brought down the hammer on its head. I heard a little squeal and saw a small poof of smoke as Skuld's hammer hit on top of the sledgehammer, conveying it's debugging power on the larger hammer.  
  
Immediately the plants rerooted themselves and the only weirdness left was me and Skuld smiling at each other with hammers on our shoulders and my parents looking as if they had seen ghosts (close tough).  
  
Skuld placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled. "Thanks, you know, I really wished I had an assistant like you around." Then she and I both gulped. She had used the wish word.  
  
I could only utter "Oh, no." before the feeling hit me. An unknown energy (Yggdrassil, the tree/computer which houses existence itself) flowed through me.   
  
According to dad I was engulfed in a purple hue and I started to float. On the front of my head I felt a weird tingling sensation as a beam like with Skuld shot from the front of my head into the sky. A few seconds later I felt the energy subside, tough not completely and I sat on the ground looking up at a once again confused Skuld. (I seem to have a knack for confusing people.)  
  
My parents also were on the ground and looked at me agawk. "Is that you?" I turned around and looked at myself in the pond, I looked and I fainted. 


	2. Heaven

I had a dream, one of a unique kind. In a room of nothingness there were two people. Both were me. One represented the old me, the other was the new me; the face I had seen in the pond. The new me resembled the old me, but was upgraded from a less than handsome mortal to a, well, 'divine' entity. For starters, while I weighed about 93 Kg, the new one barely reached 71 Kg. The height was about the same, but with the increase of hair the new one seemed taller. As noted my hair had increased in volume and there was no sign anymore of premature balding as all males in my family suffer. The face was devoid of pimples and the three small scars and the one big scar I normally had on the front of my head. Instead on the front of my head there was a blue mark, I was pleased that it is my personal symbol, some know, the Unity Sigma. Basically it's the Greek letter Sigma, which resembles an E, but my version had been toppled over to resemble an M and was flattened. To me it has several reasons why this symbol is my personal one. First it resembles the M of my name, when upright it resembles the E of my nickname Eucep and in mathematics it stands for the sum of numbers, which is an equation version of my motto 'together we are strong'. I took a note then that my hair hadn't only grown a lot longer, it reaches my butt for crying out loud, it also had darkened to near black. The rest of the body was in fine health, even those scars due to life long overweight I had weren't there anymore. It also appeared that other physical problems I had were gone. My eyes remained grey-green and later I learned that I no longer needed glasses.  
  
The new me disappeared and the old me looked at me. He spoke in a voice I didn't know yet, "Don't worry, in time you will be capable of calling me back." And he too vanished.  
  
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I woke up looking up at a girl I didn't know, tough she had markings like Skuld.   
  
As a guess I said when I woke up. "You're probably Urd." I grinned and she giggled.  
  
"No, I'm Belldandy, Skuld called me over when she couldn't wake you up." She was loveliness personified.  
  
I looked around and saw my mom talking with Skuld and my dad was sitting next to me. I never before had seen him so worried.  
  
It took about two hours to explain to my mom and dad what had happened and what the results were, even if I myself didn't really know the latter. When I got back up on my feet I noticed something new: Dad was a bit taller than me, while I should be about a feet taller than him. This I hadn't noticed in the dream.  
  
"Whaaat happened!? I've shrunk!" My wild-eyed face would probably even have scared Thor at that moment.  
  
Skuld came up to me, she was more focused on her fingers, not wanting to look into my face. "Well, you remember the wish. I think it has been taken a bit more literal than normal. You have been reduced to my physical age." I could almost fall back into unconsciousness at that point. "Don't worry, you'll grow up again." Whispering "Even if it will take a few thousand years." That really made me feel better, yeah right.  
  
"Skuld, Marc, we have to go. Kami-sama wants to speak with us." Belldandy looked apologetic at my parents.  
  
"Dami-who?" My dad asked. He isn't used to any other religion than Christian faith and a bit of Islamite faith due to our Turkish neighbourhood friends.  
  
"Kami-sama dad, it's an oriental name for the highest god, God himself, Odin or Wotan for those of Scandinavian faith, Allah for Islamites, Brahman for Hindus. HIM." I thought for a moment. "Or is it HER, you two should know."  
  
"Both, Kami-sama can be what he or she wants to be." Belldandy smiles. "But we have to leave now, it was my pleasure to meet you two."  
  
"Bye, I hope I'll see you two soon." And I followed Belldandy as she walked into the hallway. There she stopped before the mirror there. She held out her hand and I and Skuld took it. The next thing I know is that I had this weird feeling of well, water around me when we fell through the mirror.  
  
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At the end of this ride I fell on some kind of soft marble. Yeah, I do mean the stone marble, but as soft as if walking on long grass. I looked up in some kind of open hallway loaded with statues of various people and paintings of many of histories most important moments, only they looked so life-like that I wasn't sure that they were statues and paintings. Though most of the images were really unknown to me, either by not knowing what historical facts that had happened, but others were just alien looking, not from earth. At the end of the hallway there was a big door made out of plain oak wood.  
  
"Let me guess. The head office of HIM?" I looked up at Belldandy and was amazed at how she had transformed from common clothing to a very elaborate dress of white and blue. Besides that she floating, just like Skuld was doing. Skuld seemed a bit more confident when I looked at her face. Yup, had to be her home sweet home. Two beautifully dressed woman, and a guy in jeans. Not the way I expected to meet the maker.  
  
Belldandy nodded to my question. "You are expected, Skuld too."  
  
So both of us went in to meet with Kami-sama.  
  
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When I saw Kami-sama, I was sure that he had overheard my question about the him/her thing. For the human in front of me was beautiful and androgynous and was smiling at me. Yes Kami-sama loves subtle practical jokes.  
  
"It seems that my daughter has gotten herself and you into a bit of a problem." The daughter part sank in rapidly, made me wonder if there isn't any god not directly related to the creator.  
  
"Oh Lord. Let's rephrase that, she totally messed up my life. For better or worse is still to be proven." Skuld was now giving me the eye like 'as if it's all my fault'. "So what exactly has happened, did she turn me into a god or something?"  
  
"No, you are not a god. To fulfill the task of debugging assistant you have been changed into a spirit of the level of an angel."  
  
"ANGEL!" I had to look up whether I would see a halo and at my back for wings. There weren't any.  
  
"Your wings aren't present, I'll reveal them to you." He waved with his hands (I refer to HIM for reading convenience). At that moment I felt as if I had gained two extra arms on my back and the sides of my head felt more weighted. I quickly had to balance myself by grabbing onto the desk.  
  
"EEEKKK, he, he, is no angel, he is a devil." Skuld wailed and ran away from me.  
  
I looked around again and saw no feathery white wings, but skin colored bat wings. My reflection on the smooth marble floor showed that the wings were really huge, large enough to allow true physical flight. Just above my ears I saw small backwards pointing silver colored horns. I could agree with Skuld, I didn't look divine indeed, but demonic. I looked at Him for an answer. I felt a tap to my ankle and looked down to see a long tail as well which had come out as well, strangely not ripping my clothing, it was like a lizards, but without scales.  
  
"Ahem, apparently your own mind does not see angels as the true celestial heralds, it appears you regard dragons to be higher beings than angels. As thus your sub consciousness turned you into a dragon instead of an angel." He smiled and laughed. "It's really a thing that happens only to someone like Skuld, rebellious even with this."  
  
"Can he breath fire then?" Skuld now walked around me, curious as she had not seen that many dragons before I later learned. And none of them were friendly.  
  
"I do not know if I can breath fire, personally I really don't hope so. Eh, could I change back, to a more human form?"  
  
A quick lesson in shape changing learned me how to transform into a dragon-man form at will, well make that more like Snap fingers and code in the knowledge. Then Kami-sama continued.  
  
"You are hereby apprenticed to Skuld, she will teach you about debugging and the ways of heaven. Belldandy and Urd will teach you how to call upon magic and other spirits."   
  
Skulds eyes widened. "Not Urd, please. She'll turn him into a second spell casting disaster." She really looked scared, was Urd that bad? Well I knew from legend that Urd was more a warrior than a spell caster.  
  
"You can leave now." We left, not wanting to question the most supreme being in the universe, both quite shocked.  
  
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Outside the room Belldandy was waiting for us together with a dark-skinned woman of untold beauty. But then I started to come back upon those thoughts. My mind started to revert back from adult to adolescent. No, beauty wasn't the word, more the ultimate sexual fantasy. I got kicked from behind and fell to the floor.  
  
Skuld growled. "Boys!" I actually had been drooling at the sight of Skulds sister Urd.  
  
"And who turned me into a 'boy' in the first place!" I really was starting to act like a youngster again.  
  
"Will you two quit it. Well, you must be Marc. I'm Skulds sister Urd." I made the gesture of dusting off my clothing, I still wore my old raggy clothing, which was too large for me. "Let's get your assistant some better suited garb and equipment Skuld, come along." And she walked away, a huge grin on her face. Both me and Skuld were fuming with her haughty behavior.  
  
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The sight of heaven is simply put to unearthly to describe, lets just say it looks really pretty and is a bit confusing as flight is something all deities use freely. As such all things there are more three dimensional there. I must say that after a year I still don't like it, even tough I can fly it uses a lot of energy, unlike the gods and goddesses I have to use physical flight instead of magical flight. I will note that this is the description from someone looking as a human does, I wasn't able to see beyond that yet. When I later on learned to see more, the sight was even more impressive.  
  
Eventually I got introduced to one of the Japanese goddesses, Amaterasu. She is the one who creates all the clothing for the powers. A really nice person who exactly knows what looks good on a person. She also knew very well what would be very appropriate for me. She gave me something that resembled Skulds divine garb, but mine had trousers instead of a skirt and the red was purple and the pink was lavender. The boots were more like soldiers boots and were interwoven with the trousers. Where on Skulds clothing there were half orbs, I had none. Luckily she didn't pass me any of the jewelry Skuld wore.  
  
The next stop was at Hephaestus, the Greek god of the forge. Like the legends say he is indeed malformed, but not as bad as they describe. He actually looked better than I did as a mortal, but apparently this was an illusion. I was glad tough that his wife, Aphrodite, wasn't along for two reasons. One, my juvenile mind would go bunkers. Two, according to Haephaestos she would have insisted that my hammer would be pink or something similar silly.   
  
After that we told him that we needed a debugging hammer he asked how all this came to be (and many others afterward asked me too). Urd showed him what had happened using her 'past' powers. As he saw the event of my first indirect debugging Hephaestus got the inspiration he needed.  
  
About ten minutes later (he is VERY fast), he came back with something that resembled a slightly enlarged version of the sledgehammer that I used to clobber the bug. Only this one was purple like my clothing and made out of some sort of steel. In general it looked like Skulds hammer blown out of proportions. When I took it I noted it to weigh about half that of the original so it was a lot faster.  
  
We took some time to talk some about my current status, but Skuld really wanted to go, she wasn't to comfortable with her 'screwup'. So we soon left the forgeroom and headed out.  
  
After a while of walking we would go through the norse area of where the powers that be live to be able to get to a place to safely head back to earth.  
  
Unfortunately this was also the point where I met Thor. God of thunder, the god with a pet hammer called Mjolnir who was on his way to work at the forgeroom on plans for his new armor he'd use for some kind of games soon to come. And he wasn't so glad to see someone with a bigger hammer than him. He dashed towards us and looked sternly at me, a 'kid' with a hammer larger than the kid himself.  
  
Thor, envision a guy wrapped in way to much skins of various kinds of deer, sporting a short red beard and moustage and the face of 'annoy me, make my day'. Add to that huge muscles and pants of black leather. "Who is this shrimp?"  
  
"Oh, hia Thor, this is Marc, he is my apprentice."  
  
I had a good clue due to his name why he was displeased so I made the notion of being unstable while trying to lift the hammer, which wasn't true as I could handle the hammer with the biggest of ease. "Uhm, hello. Are you a relative of my boss?" Skuld blushed at the title I gave her.  
  
"Apprentice ehy, this little twerp, he's no god that I know about."  
  
Belldandy laid her hand on Thors shoulder. "He's no god, he's an independent spirit angel appointed to Skuld."  
  
I had to correct her. "I'm no angel Belldandy, I'm a dragon. Didn't Kami-sama inform you?" And I revealed my wings.  
  
Of course I didn't know that Thor isn't that fond of scaly folk, especially worms to which dragons are related. That due to Nidghog chewing on Yggdrassils roots I saw him turning red so I changed back immediately. He was still turning red so I decided that 'RUN' was a good action.  
  
I got away for a bit, but he threw Mjolnir after me. The Norns couldn't stop him at all, so they cried out that I should duck. Something in my mind told me not to do so, so I didn't. I turned around and grabbed Mjolnir out of the air and thus stopped it from hitting me. Even tough it crackled a bit with electricity I didn't feel a thing of it. I swore that I could hear jaws drop. I looked at a wild-eyed Thor, a smiling Belldandy, a proud Skuld and a confused Urd.  
  
"Impossible." The only thing Thor could say.  
  
I looked at the hammer and realized what I had done. What I knew from legend it took the strength of a giant to lift Mjolnir. Thor himself used an enchanted belt to be strong enough to lift Mjolnir (which looks at the moment like a simple belt with a Harley Davidson symbol on it). And I was lifting it without any trouble at all. Besides that, anyone who is an enemy of Odin's pantheon will get zapped by the hammer if he wields it.  
  
I walked back and handed Thor his hammer back. "Are you now convinced that I have no bad intend?"  
  
"A KID holding my hammer, and a dragon at that?" His face twitched a bit, once again giving me the instinctive feeling of RUN.  
  
"Hold it right there you, you're not going to throw that piece of junk at that kid again!" A woman's voice thundered.  
  
"Hi Sif." Skuld smiled at the wife of Thor, a beautiful gold haired woman.  
  
"Uhm, hi honny. But, but, Mjolnir isn't junk." His voice reminded me of a mouse now. It appeared that the younger form I had now had saved me.  
  
Sif walked over to the Norns and gave all of them a big hug. Yep friendly type. And then she walked over to me. "And you are?"  
  
"Marc, I'm Skulds debugging assistant. At least that is what Skuld wished for." I looked down now. "I hope I can live up to that task." It was only later that I started to wonder why I had accepted my fate so fast. As far as I now know it's because the one who made the wish was a goddess of fate and this was part of my fate.  
  
After this we went back to earth, the Norns decided that my study should start on earth. 


	3. Back on Earth

I was impressed by the size of the temple. Compared to my home it's huge. The garden was a comforting sight, my dad was an excellent gardener and this one resembled ours a bit.  
  
"So you must be Marc?" I heard someone saying, but I realized that I was listening to and understanding Japanese. As I saw a Japanese guy heading towards us. Had to be that Keicchi.  
  
"Uhhuh and you must be Keicchi?" He nodded. I had to agree with Skuld, he did look a bit like a beanstalk. Tiny and bony. No wonder Skuld felt like he wasn't good enough for Belldandy as I started to get that same idea. I noted that he wasn't really looking at me, but at my hammer. Skuld had said that she had used hers on him already. The idea of someone like Skuld (as I really started to look and act like Skuld) with an even bigger hammer probably got on his nerves.   
  
"So you are that immortal human with Belldandy as his girlfriend?"  
  
"I-immortal." Keicchi and Belldandy both looked at me.  
  
"Well, he did ask to be with you 'FOREVER'." I took a face understating the word 'DUH!'. I'm not one to keep my knowledge to myself, actually a bad trait of me.  
  
Skuld looked pretty sad so I walked over to her. "Now don't you forget what I had told you about this. It's really not that bad to you and Belldandy." I looked back over my shoulder as I heard a 'thud' and saw Belldandy hugging Keicchi who lay on the ground. She was so happy that she had to cry.  
  
"Is this really true?" Urd asked us.  
  
"Very likely. You should either check back in heaven or ask Skuld to scan the future." I grabbed Skulds hand to comfort her a bit. "Hmm, lemme guess, you already did that?" She nodded, her face told me and Urd enough. Urd tough, also took notice of me holding Skulds hand.  
  
"We should get inside, Skuld will you set up a console to log in on Yggdrassil?" Urd walked back inside.  
  
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When we sat at the table with a console in Skulds hands I fidgeted about, not used to chairless tables. Also my hammer was in the way. It took a while before a rather disheveled Keicchi and Belldandy returned, both with a big grin.  
  
"So what should we expect from him? And where did he get that ridiculous strength from? When he gave me a hand he didn't seem to be strong." Urd looked sternly at me. I had trouble looking straight at her as either I couldn't look straight into her eyes or I would be staring at her well developed bosom.  
  
"Here I got it." She turned the screen for everyone to read.  
  
Marc  
  
Ungraded class limited independent spirit (Dragon-type)  
  
Assigned as assistant to second class limited Goddess Skuld  
  
Primary tasks  
  
- Assist in Debugging  
  
- Protect Skuld  
  
Secondary tasks  
  
- Technological development  
  
- System administrator  
  
- Network builder  
  
- Protect Belldandy and Urd  
  
"System administrator! Welcome to the team" Urd smirked at me.  
  
"Hmm, as a mortal I already had that job. So the system probably wants to use my skills and knowledge."  
  
The next part appeared.  
  
Domain and Powers.  
  
- Fate (Future), Water, War. (Skulds domains as well.)  
  
- Heightened physical prowess and endurance. Grows according to need. To a maximum of full-dragon levels.  
  
- Mortal level of technological knowledge at maximum level.  
  
- Magic is limited to creation and protection.  
  
- Limited shape-shifting.  
  
- Telepathy.  
  
- Teleport medium: clouds  
  
- Secondary energy source: chocolate milk  
  
- Estimated IQ: 142.   
  
- Estimated Human Power Level: 6. New estimated Power Level: 700.000.  
  
"Ahw, the transformation didn't increase my IQ!" I fake pouted.  
  
"Didn't raise your IQ!" Keicchi looked at me in amazement. The rest seemed just slightly less amazed.  
  
"Skuld, did you read his personal files before you went?" Urd looked at her. She shook her head and placed a booklet on the table with my name on it. Urd grabbed it and started to read.  
  
"What's this about a medium and energy source?" I asked Belldandy. "And power level?"  
  
"All of us have to use a special doorway to transport ourselves around. I use mirrors, Urd uses televisions and Skuld uses warm water. You apparently have to use clouds. And for the energy source, that's for when we deplete our own energy that we receive from the system. This happens mostly when we use too much magic. I have to sleep to regain energy, Urd drinks sake or other kinds of alcohol, Skuld eats ice-cream and you have to drink chocolate milk. Though we also have our moonstone bracers as another backup." Then she opened up a small sub-window with some of her own stats. Among them were her power level estimation. It was a whopping thirty million. "This rating is how much energy we have compared to a normal human who is at a rating of one. But many humans are exceptions to this, for example due to our presence and the things we have been through Keicchi probably has a rating somewhere of 9, but with him being immortal it is now more likely among the ten thousand. Your higher basic is mostly due to your training in whatever sports you did and partly due to natural high energy levels." It sounds ridiculous, but apparently Walter was correct when he once told me that I emitted powerful vibes.  
  
"Having to drink chocolate milk isn't a big problem." I smiled widely, you all know that chocolate milk is my most favorite drink. "But I have to fly up to clouds in order to teleport. What if there aren't any clouds around? Or how about people seeing me fly up to the clouds?" The rest didn't know what to answer. "Hmm, domain of Water, clouds then probably also include steam and fog?" I really hoped on that.  
  
Urd remained transfixed in my files. It was quite a booklet of about two hundred pages. "Hmm, are those personal files always that big?"  
  
"Most are smaller for someone of your age." Belldandy walked over to Urd who had this weird smile on her face. "Oh, my." Belldandy was reading the same thing as Urd apparently.  
  
"Skuld! You really know who to pick for your assistant isn't it. Look at these stats, according to this his only drawback seems to have been looks, speed and some lack in skills following from that." She read a bit more. "Didn't the system say he had increased endurance." She gulped and took a good look at me from behind my file. "It's to bad he has turned into a kid." She read even further. "So you finished high school with tens for all computer related subjects. Very high grades in history, arts and philosophy. Nine average in anything maths and physics. And even actually reasonable grade for gymnastics."  
  
I blushed severely. "So I was a bit of a show off. If you have the brains, why not use them? Also I took school under my level as I kinda dislike studying a lot." Urd was flipping through some pages. "And I make up for lack in speed with determination and my endurance."  
  
She ended at a page she apparently liked, as she was smiling from ear to ear. Belldandy looked with big eyes, giggled and sat down at the table. "Skuld, why did you have to make him your assistant, why not mine!?" Urd looked a bit mournful.  
  
"Lemme see that." as Skuld jumped to Urd. Urd quickly closed the file and made it go poof. "Hey, I wanted to read that!"  
  
"You're way to young to read that Skuld." She grinned evilly. I had this very cold chill down my spine.  
  
"He's my assistant so I have the full right to know everything about him." She grinned, ran off and disappeared into her room taking the console with her. I sat there slightly confused.  
  
"Do you think he'll be good assistant to Skuld?" Belldandy asked Urd.  
  
"Yep. Unfortunately, we're ending up with two brats in stead of one." I fumed at that and I left for Skulds room.  
  
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It was like stepping into my childhoods fantasy. Electronic parts, gizmo's and computers everywhere. Skuld sat in a corner with the console on the ground and was typing furiously. She didn't look up from the screen until at least half an hour later.   
  
I looked over her shoulder and saw some notes of things I did in the past.   
  
Things about my friends. Unhappy childhood due to bullies. People I lost during my life. Things I like and don't like, but that page was the last one, the next one came up with some kind of password. I noted the title of the page, the only thing visible of this page and decided that Skuld indeed shouldn't read it. She saw the title, sighed and let it drop.  
  
"I think you know enough about me for now." I sighed. "Never would have guessed that they would know that much about me up there." I grinned. "Especially that last page, cuz I don't know it myself."  
  
She looked up at me. "You never?"  
  
"Nope, remember how I looked." She became beet red. "So this is your little bit of Asgard to be your haven? Now I understand why you weren't bothered by my room." She had a sheepish grin.  
  
"You like it?"  
  
"Could only use some quick stations. Like I have on my chamber. A few consoles to hook up and test new goodies." I fell silent for a moment. "But I didn't have a robot running around!" Pointing at a small globous robot with a big 'hat'.  
  
"Oh, hia Banpei." She cheered at her personal mecha. It looked at Skuld and me and it gave me the idea that it was confused as we looked a bit alike. "Meet my new personal assistant Marc." He extended an 'arm' and shook my hand.  
  
"I'll introduce you to Sigel later, but she is in Ysgard now for a few tests."  
  
I liked the idea of a robot running around, even if he couldn't really speak that well as I learned when Skuld hit off with a long and interesting explanation about Banpei. In about two hours I learned about most of Skulds most used inventions. Most of them make up for her lack of magic, which was only just starting to develop.  
  
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Later that day Urd and Belldandy had decided to get some of my stuff from home over to the temple. It took a while to get most back into the temple, electronic stuff was brought to Skulds room and my clothing to Keicchi's. (Later I found out that Urd had taken along Khonein (bunny in English when translated from my local dialect) as well when I saw it on a shelf in Urd's room.) And believe me, it's a pain in the back if you aren't used to futons (sleeping on nothing more then a mat on the ground).  
  
As I had told Skuld about my quick stations I decided that they could be set up in her room for the same task. We later started to create more stations like these to decrease the mess in her room by using more modular parts then she already used. At this time the entire room has more a look of a real laboratory than a disaster area.  
  
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That evening I for the first time in my life tasted Belldandy's cooking. Everything tasted just about perfect. I could best use the term 'sensory overload' for Belldandy's cooking. In the end I was stuffed to the max.  
  
After this we went to the living room to know each other a bit better. For the main part I listened to Belldandy about what had happened to them since Keicchi made his wish. I enjoyed it until she told about an event of a year ago.  
  
The fact that Diablo had been set loose upon the world by the demon Mara made me rather unhappy, even if he had been erased. DIABLO for crying out loud, even if they referred to his title as Lord of Terror. Even more that he transformed into Fenris didn't make me any more at ease.  
  
This put a way of thinking into motion. Now that I was a servant to a Norn it implied that there was a serious chance that I would end up facing one or the other demon (like Mara) or greater evil in the long run. Heck, I probably will have to face Ragnarok itself. (If I am not destroyed before that happens.) But I am no warrior, even if I have Skulds War domain for her having been a Valkyrie.   
  
I really don't have any skills with any melee weapon (except to squish a bug with a hammer) and only little with martial arts; Jiu-Jitsu, Judo and Karate. I did have a good aim with guns and bows, but that really wasn't something I was willing to use, ever. Then I also remembered that I was to protect Skuld. How?  
  
I looked a bit upset as Belldandy asked me if something was wrong. I stated that I was suffering from a bit late form of realization that my previous life was over. I left the room and went for my bed. At that moment I didn't want to impose myself upon them, this was something I had to figure out myself.  
  
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That evening it took some time before I slept. Luckily I managed to put of the thoughts of Ragnarok and thought about the near future, about the new friends I made, but also about all of my friends back home. To a certain extend I know that I might never see some of you before you die and go to the afterlife. I am sorry for this.  
  
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In the morning I became aware of a weight upon my chest. My ears picked up the light snoring of Keicchi, but also the breathing of something else. I looked up and then down at my chest and saw a small figure asleep on my chest. It had blonde hair and small feathered wings. She was covered or better said wrapped in a white ribbon.  
  
My stirring woke up the little figure. She rubbed her eyes smiled and said "Koku!". The face had something familiar, but I didn't know what it was. The hair was different and she was a lot smaller, but I did recognize Skulds face in the little 'angel'. Yet I was very confused at why this 'angel' was where it was. The rummaging woke up Keicchi who when I looked at him seemed to be nearly as confused as I was.  
  
"Noble Scarlet? What are you doing outside Skuld?" Keicchi turned his attention to the little 'angel'.  
  
Noble Scarlet looked a bit shy, gave me a peck on the cheek and disappeared. I just sat there with a stupid grin on my face. Keicchi looked at me with a big grin as I was apparently flushed red (it stinks to revert back to 14 year).  
  
"That was Noble Scarlet, Skulds angel." He yawned. "She represents Skulds stronger emotions which have been set free, first she didn't listen to well, but after her second summoning she pretty much fully obeys Skuld, but it takes some maturing still." He stretched and sat on the edge of his bed. "Unlike the angels of Bell and Urd who are totally loyal."  
  
"You don't say." I got out of bed and started dressing for the rest of the day.   
  
"Stronger emotions? Then why do I get the feeling that she wants attention?" I looked up pondering. "Maybe Skuld really feels lonely. She mentioned that she felt alone when her sisters went to live with you and that she still feels that way a little bit." Keicchi didn't look happy with that remark. "But don't worry, hopefully I can keep her occupied so she won't feel lonely anymore." 


	4. Training starts

A few hours and a good breakfast later I was in Skulds room to learn about how the Yggdrassil system works and how the debugging works. The training was long and pretty intense, mostly due to the massive size of Yggdrassil and the amount of effort it takes to debug.  
  
The first few days I mostly followed Skuld around, staying far away from the other gods. When I got more experienced and learned about the social workings of heaven (which are bloody, bloody complex) and the things gods do (which are remarkably the same as ours, but that's due to the fact that we without knowing emulate the gods).  
  
I met with several of the other gods in a short time, being introduced by Skuld to them. She mostly picked the younger and creative gods and goddesses. I liked most of them on first contact, except one, to this date I really hate him.  
  
The one god who made me fume the moment I saw him, totally drunk and driving some kind of heavens version of a Porsche, Bacchus. I nearly snapped and attacked him the moment I saw him. That guy is the utter representation of alcohol in all it's forms, from the form that so generally makes many of my friends alcoholics during the weekends and parties, to the form of dangerously insane people who cheerfully tank themselves and then go onto the street in their cars without any care for others. Like the one who hit Whitestag and her daughter AND KILLED THEM.  
  
Then he asked me and Skuld to join him for a some beer. I snapped. I changed and charged at him yelling murderer. He reacted rather calmly and proceeded to blast me with a full power (of a god with Power Level 1.900.000 nonetheless) force bolt. I should have been obliterated by it, but I was only stunned. He saw that he hadn't even scratched me and took the moment of confusion to disappear.  
  
A bit later when I had calmed down and was back at the temple Skuld asked me what that was about. I told her about how I lost one of my 'soulmates' to a human like Bacchus. How she had been hit and run, how that that monster escaped justice with only seven years of jail and about the fact that not only she, but also her daughter died that day and that her husband had been severely maimed. Skuld consoled me by offering to visit Whitestag in the afterlife.  
  
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I was in a very hot headed state the following days. Which resulted in a very interesting meeting with the demoness Mara. Mara for starters is a very pretty looking woman in her early twenties like Urd. She has a kaukasian look with a well trained body. Yellow/white (not like blonde) long hair that seems to have been twisted around a log and then fixated, really weird looking. Her small pupils make her eyes very mysterious, that combined with the / marking on her forehead. Her clothing was something I would say is partly casual and partly like something a S&M dominatrix would wear.  
  
The whole household (me, Skuld and Urd as the other two had gone of to Nekomi Tech) was outside in no time. Skuld made me hide before Mara could see me as I couldn't really do anything against Mara so I walked around the garden and sneaked up behind Mara to observe. The very beautiful looking demoness was laughing at Urd and Skuld, declaring that she had finally found a way to separate Keicchi and Belldandy permanently and that the goddesses hadn't gotten any chance to stop her.  
  
But I had. I rushed her from behind and bear-hugged her in a double way, using my wings as well. This caught her totally unaware and she couldn't escape. She struggled, but was stopped by my adjusting strength. Her look was one of total confusion as she realized what was holding her (and partly where as it was rather, close). She probably considered me a traitorous demon seeing my wings, but as she had a close look at my celestial symbol (blue for celestials and brown for fiends) she realized that I wasn't a demon. She begged me to release her, but I first let Urd search her and retrieve some kind of powder. As Urd found that I noted a small change in Mara's eyes, they went from unhappiness to fear, better said desperation. There was more going on than I knew, but seeing what she was and what she had done in the past I pushed her away from the temple as Urd destroyed the powder.  
  
Mara looked pretty upset and started to launch a volley of force bolts at us (force bolts are the common name for various kinds of magical attacks, they include pure magic to fireballs or Zeus's lightningbolts) the only thing they hit were me as I had interposed myself, stretching my wings completely. As the same quick increase of toughness activated as with Bacchus the bolts were like darts hitting a brick wall. This gave Mara one last option, flee. She did.  
  
That is also the point that I learned about using to much magical energy while on earth, absorbing those blasts drained me too much and I fell asleep right on the spot. I woke up a bit later as bottle of chocolate milk was emptied into my mouth.  
  
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The month after this was rather uneventful on earth. I primarily adjusted to my new life and learned my new job.  
  
Kami-Sama had heard about the encounters with Bacchus and Mara. He did give me a lecture about attacking gods, but encouraged me to seek out some of the warrior gods and spirits to train me in the martial arts. So I did.  
  
With some help of Urd I went to a part of the realm of the dead to seek out one of the best martial artists ever. Bruce Lee. Yeah, you heard me, I took lessons from him. But I don't come close to his speed and skill. At least I did learn something from him.  
  
In a short time I met and trained with several ancient human warriors like sir Lancelot and Attila the Hun (has cleaned up his act in the last few centuries).   
  
I trained with them to avoid the big league, that of the gods, until I had a descent basis.  
  
After the first month of learning I had a neat daily routine, in the morning I would train, in the midday I would study with Skuld and in the evening I had either time to myself or for training the basics of magic.  
  
The second month was my start to train with some of the upper league. The first one I found willing to train me (mostly out of boredom) was Athena. She is a very enjoyable lady until she is in combat, then she is ruthless. The fun part was that she tried in all earnest to get me tired, she couldn't get me tired that much, but got tired herself after nearly twenty hours. (Got to love my special powers.)  
  
After a long training she simply dumped me in one of the training rooms of a war god, to be more precise the training room of Mars. Who was there at the moment feeling rather happy to get a sparring partner. I never before had to run that much. 


	5. Shadows

Finally a day of rest I got after nearly a week of needing healing severely… every hour or so. If you ever were to talk about severe training, go talk with the powers that be. They aren't the paragons of their job without a reason. The last day I even got to see how the Valkyries train of which Lind is a member, a friend of Skuld and the rest. The reason that Skuld now got her own angel again.  
  
It was quite the sight to see them all work so hard in doing their training, it was scary, especially as I saw a few of the wounded be moved off to be taken care off. If those were just training wounds, how bad could fighting with real bad asses be. The most startling bit was the end kata's where one of the lead Valkyries showed her full prowess. I think she was showing off though. She was standing before a mountain, think a lone mountain on a flat land the size of the pyramid of Cheops. As I stood with my current instructor (Athena still) I looked on in awe as that Valkyrie just took her spear and threw it as powerful as she could. And what power it was that the spear ended up going through the solid material all the way, flying out the other way and making the top collapse. The really scary part was that the spear was not an enchanted or magical item at all, just plain wooden spear…. and the mountain, was also very much solid rock.  
  
Yet at that moment as that Valkyrie came over to gloat, Skuld popped in with a big smirk while she looked at her. While Skuld never finished her path of the Valkyrie in this incarnation of her, she still had some skill and reputation left in heaven. And she was not about to let some snob goddess who isn't even of her own pantheon get the best of her. Competative that she is indeed. Of course she drew me in on this one.  
  
As we headed to the same mountain she talked to me on what to do. As I heard her I just looked in disbelief at her, but my fear was wrong it proved. One of the other goddesses nearby let a huge block of rock hover up into the air between me and Skuld. Both of us took plain wooden mallets, yeah… I really got nervous at that moment, though a few others looked up at the size of my mallet as I was given one suited for my strength. The item was far larger then myself. Anyway. Skuld started some strange hymm, using her song magic I believe at that point to invoke a battle prowess in those around her, which in this case was directed at herself and me only. I felt my muscles rapidly explode as energies used over a whole day were rapidly gathered and focused on a single point. There was a countdown in Skulds norse language and at the resounding of the word for three we both slammed our hammers into the large rock (think a small truck). I didn't know how she managed to do it, but the invoked strength in us both made our hit truly and utterly pulverize the rock to sand.  
  
As I stood rubbing sand out of my hair Skuld was already busy gloating with some of the Valkyries. I shook my head as I looked at Skuld busy, then as I turned my face found the first of many times that it was wedged between two very soft breasts. Which made my face beet red and someone else very embarrassed. I looked up then at the face of Lind, the two angel warrior, pretty much the most powerful Valkyrie in existence. Major gulp time as she frowned at me while I backed off.  
  
Luckily she was more controlled then any of the others there, she merely send me and Skuld off. Even if I was a defender, I wasn't a warrior like the Vakyries and she factly stated that I should not expect to ever reach their skill levels. It was not needed. And after me recalling all of their training couldn't do anything but agree. Besides, it was time for me to go back to earth to rest, recover and work with Urd on spells.  
  
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Once at home after all that excitement I sat with Skuld outside, not only recovering from having been beaten to crap (I by that time no longer called it training but torture time), but also from having had a severe case of gass due to Urd's failed magic. Skuld was sitting right next to me, tired herself from the day just like I was. Both relaxing in the bit of sun left for the day, but soon I found Skuld dozing off leaning against me. I smiled as I really enjoyed that, such closeness with Skuld. Yet a big turn point was given right then and there as Skuld lightly talked in her sleep. I listened and found her to call out a name I didn't know, one she said with a lot of happiness in her voice. Sentaro. Yay for me for getting some hopes up I'd say. The next day I heard from Sigil that Sentaro was pretty much Skuld's human boyfriend.  
  
Oh yeah, Sigil, talk about Skuld's creation skills there, her second living robot she made. Where Banpei is a bit expressionless, Sigil is all about expression. Made from a greeting robot she is a robot with a full human look. Unless she uses her rocket fists or her other inhuman gadgets, one could not see her to be a robot. And I get the distinct feeling that Banpei is utterly in love with Sigil, but they just don't want to tell me. Well Sigil doesn't want to tell me for I still cannot understand Banpei's bleeps.  
  
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I think nearly the entire next day that most I did was moping around while working on my magic books. Quite upset with the revelation of Skuld already loving someone. I could wish finally for something, but it was unlikely to happen in the first place. It took quite a while before I actually went out to be with others again that day. Actually most of that week I was very unsociable now I think about it.  
  
At the end of that week Skuld said she was going out to cheer on Sentaro in a race. It peeked my curiosity so I went along with Skuld to see the guy. To my shock it was pretty much a Keiichi clone. She doesn't see it nor the rest it seems, but I see it anyway. I found it even typical when I saw him.  
  
Looking on during the race at him and at Skuld, I quickly saw how deep it already was. I really didn't want to mess up such a relationship and felt actually quite bad for feelings I had earlier that week of wanting to break up the duo. It would have been as bad as splitting up Keiichi and Belldandy. I left only shortly after meeting him, wanting to leave the two to their own.  
  
As I got home though at the temple, I got asked by Urd to return to heaven immediately as something important needed to be done still. Confused I asked for an explanation as I was told I didn't need to go back for a while.  
  
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Once up there I was met by Sif who had been given the task to bind me to my doublet. Doublet you may ask. Well it's simple. Ever wonder why there is no war of the gods and demons or such ever occurring on earth. That is due to a failsafety that the Oni-hime and Kami-Sama had made up. The Doublet System means if one god dies, a demon dies. If a demon dies, a god dies. Not knowing who is linked to who makes this quite the interesting system.  
  
Now the fun part is, I really don't remember from that point to the point I was back with Sif anymore as that is part of it all. I apparently met with a new demonic spirit and was linked to him with my life. Nice to hear that isn't it?  
  
And just as I was going home, the weirdness factor was upped a step more. Not knowing what had happened though this is how it happened from my viewpoint.  
  
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As I landed on earth I felt a sickening presence near the temple, one far worse then with Mara. It made me scared somewhat, but I quickly changed to my uniform again and readied my hammer to go investigate the demonic presence I felt. Well demonic wasn't the right word for it, for what I saw is not even deemed demonic, this was a being of entropic nature. As a note, demons do not like the concept of destruction of everything, they are for misery and evil.  
  
What I saw was pretty much a grotesque looking human with a single eye as the head, believe me, had I been human still I'd barfed from the mere sight. It was overlooking the temple from a distance. I noticed a magic field before him, probably hiding his presence from the goddesses, but from the side I could detect him. Unfortunately, he also detected me. He just shortly looked at me and I froze in fear, but then poof. The being was gone. I swore it grinned at me as it vanished. Likely it did.  
  
I told that evening about what I saw, but none of the goddesses had an idea what it could have been as it was unfamiliar to anyone. Even searching the database gave nothing. We shrugged it off in the long run as having seen a disguised nightmare spirit. Boy, were we wrong.  
  
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A few weeks passed by, normal life had formed again during which I learned a lot again, though it was far less rigorous then the months before. It was also then that I had to prove for the first time that I was able to do what I needed to do.  
  
Then, as I reached home with Keiichi and Bell after a day away we were in for a nasty surprise, very nasty. The entire temple was demolished to the ground. No, make that non-existant, it was just a clear field of sand and nothing more within the walls of the temple complex. Skuld and Urd soon joined us as they returned from heaven. Skuld in her biggest panic as she couldn't detect Banpei and Sigil anymore. 


End file.
